Adam Griego is not your average guy. Making the transition from alcoholic, drug addict, and felon serving time for drug possession; to clean, sober, successful business owner, homeowner, adjunct college professor, community activist, family man, and one of the first recipients of the Santa Fe mayor’s Challenge Medal, is, to say the least, an impressive turnaround. We invite you to join us in celebrating Adam’s achievements with the launch of this website, and the first of a regular series of posts that will take you behind the scenes in his activism. If you feel inspired by what you see, hear and discover, there will be opportunities for you, too, to become part of these endeavors, should you wish to be involved.
First of all, an introduction: Born in Seattle, Adam’s childhood was far from stable, with traumas that drove him to alcohol at the tender age of 8, followed a few years later by drugs. After high school, he enlisted in culinary school (he still loves to cook) but left when he realized he would not be able to succeed in a world where alcohol and drugs were freely available.
In spite of the fact that he knew absolutely nothing about cars, Adam saw an ad for the Lincoln Technical Institute in Maryland and decided to enroll. He had always been drawn to practical skills like woodworking and architectural drawing – classes he had particularly enjoyed in school – so he decided to give it a try. Little did he know that cars were to become the life-changing catalyst that would bring him to where he is now.
Although Adam had never touched a car, after completing the course with flying colors and becoming a nationally certified car mechanic, he knew he had found his way. Wanting to start his new career in a completely new place, and having a family connection to New Mexico (his father was born in Madrid) he began looking for jobs in Santa Fe. “I had always been a minority, everywhere I lived,” he says, “because nobody looked like me. As soon as I landed in Albuquerque, I realized I had gone from being a minority to a majority overnight.”
Adam made his home in Santa Fe in 1998, and began working for a Mitsubishi/ Nissan repair shop, before moving on to Subaru. After just three years, he had become a Master Certified Technician, and opened his own shop in 2007.
Still battling his addiction to the altered state induced by drugs and alcohol, he started transporting cocaine from Santa Fe to El Paso, Texas, as a sideline. It wasn’t until 2018 that he finally decided enough was enough; it was time to quit both, once and for all. He has remained sober and drug free ever since, but that date, June 26th. 2018, is forever embedded in Adam’s memory for a completely different reason, because two days later, June 28th. he was picked up by the Feds in El Paso, and charged with drug possession.
He spent the summer in state prison in Texas, before being bonded out, but because he had been transporting cocaine across state lines, he was then indicted federally as well. “That was heavy,” he admits, “really scary, because right there on the charge sheet it said, ‘The United States of America versus Adam John Griego.’ But going to prison, and experiencing first-hand the inner workings of the justice system, state and federal, is why I got involved with advocacy. If I hadn’t gone to prison, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.”
During his time in the federal system, Adam was connected with a therapist who helped him to understand that he could actually get a lot done while he was in prison. “It was an opportunity to ground myself and figure out a plan as to what I was going to do when I came out,” he recalls. “So that’s what I did; I worked on myself and made a game plan.”
The first thing he wanted to do was get a job, which turned out to be quite a challenge for someone who had just spent 23 months behind bars. As he points out, “At that time I had about 20 years’ experience working on cars, but nobody would hire me. I couldn’t even get a job at Walmart.”
As luck would have it, Adam had previously worked for a car dealer in Santa Fe, who offered to take him on, but he had no credit and needed a place to live. Miraculously, everything came together when the father of his local church pastor said Adam could stay in his spare room until he got back on his feet.
They say that if Santa Fe wants to keep you, it will find ways to support you; if not, it will toss you aside. Since Adam has now been here for almost 30 years, the City Different clearly had his back and wanted him to stay. That became clear from the start, because that job brought him into contact with a lot of different people, many of whom became friends. One of them was so impressed with Adam’s expertise that she thought he would make an excellent teacher and invited him to come and teach at the Community College. He told her she must be kidding, as he had just got out of prison. She just shrugged and said, ‘I don’t care.’
That was soon followed by another customer who got Adam involved with the advocacy that has since become an important part of his life. “It all started with her making me an ACLU Fellow, and we were instrumental in passing the Voting Rights Act for the State of New Mexico,’ he recalls. “That included restoring the right of previously incarcerated individuals to vote when they were released from prison. That got me hooked and I’m still very active with the ACLU.”
On a personal level, he then met a realtor who told him she was going to get him accredited and would sell him his first house. She meant it, too, and they began looking at houses. Just eighteen months after being released from prison, Adam became a homeowner.
But wait... there’s more! A student in his first class at the Community College turned out to be the President of a local Credit Union. When he heard that Adam was interested in opening his own shop, he gave him a business card and said he would be happy to help make that a reality.
He, too, was as good as his word, and wrote Adam a substantial check after helping him to get a second mortgage on his home. That made it possible for him to open Adam’s Automotive, the successful car repair business he has owned since 2023.
Adam’s activism has now expanded in a number of different ways, and it is clearly something he is passionate about and enjoys being a part of. That is what future posts will be focusing on, featuring behind-the-scenes stories of past endeavors and future plans, both local and national. We hope you will join us in being part of this journey, and may even feel inspired to become involved. Adam would love nothing more than to build a community of like-minded people, who feel as motivated as he is to make a positive difference in people’s lives.
